It's a fact that Jesus did exist, but other than the Bible, how can anyone prove that He really is the Son Of God and not the son of a Roman soldier named Pantera, and how can anyone prove that He really did have divine powers such as healing the sick… and not doing magic activities or any other occult acts?

Sincerely,
Corroborative Evidence

Dear Corroborative Evidence,

The differences are in the details – the story of Jesus’ life has lots of them.  History has lots of myths and fables of people performing otherworldly deeds, but when someone tells a myth, it never has specific details, and it never can be corroborated.  Jesus’ life is exactly the opposite.

1. We know exactly when He was born and in what city (Lk 2:1-4).
2. We know His exact name and family lineage (Matt 1:1-17).
3. We know how He died, where He died (Jhn 19:17), and where He was buried (Mk 15:43).
4. There were eyewitnesses to the empty tomb (Mk 16:3-5).
5. There were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus (1 Cor 15:4-8).

Jesus was attested to by His followers and secular writers like Josephus and Tacitus.  There is a clear and accurate historical record of Jesus’ life that was written within a generation of His lifetime and was undisputed by those most capable of presenting evidence against His resurrection.  Early Christianity flourished because of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and the ready and available evidence to corroborate the story.  It is important to remember that Jesus’ followers died for their belief that He was raised from the dead and that the message of Jesus’ resurrection spread in the very same city where He was crucified.  If they hadn’t really seen an empty tomb and a risen Jesus, the apostles would never have given their lives for the cause of Christ, and Christianity’s enemies would have quickly produced His dead body to refute the story of a risen Jesus.  Unlike myths and fairy tales, Jesus’ life is detailed, documented, and corroborated by the historians and contemporaries of His day.  For a more in-depth study on extra-biblical evidence for Jesus, we recommend reading The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel.

Why do christians accept the New Testament canon?

Sincerely,
Authenticating Orders

Dear Authenticating Orders,

The question of what books to include in the Bible and what books to exclude as false is a major issue – and it is an issue that the early christians had to face.  Twenty-seven books are included in the New Testament canon (the word ‘canon’, when applied to Scriptures, means ‘the officially accepted list of books’), and each one of these books is documented by early christians as being a divinely-inspired piece of literature.  In other words, the early christians believed that God wrote it.

The key to understanding why some books are included in the Bible and other books (even books from the same time period) are excluded is to remember that the Bible claims to be God’s Book (2 Pet 1:19-21).  The early christians lived during the time when these books were being written, and they were fully aware of who was doing the writing.  Today, we can’t tell which religious documents were written by apostles and which documents were written by heretics… but the early christians certainly could!  If someone claimed that a letter was written by the apostle Paul, all they had to do to verify the authenticity of the letter was to ask Paul for themselves.  The early christians were in the best position to differentiate between authentic apostolic writings and other manmade documents.  This is exactly why the early church quickly adopted the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and they have been almost universally accepted as the only New Testament books ever since.  Numerous historical documents verify that the New Testament canon that we use today was accepted, read, collected, distributed, and used by the early christians from very early on.  People who seek to say that they have “found” some new Bible books that have been missing from the canon have to prove that their books were accepted by christians from the beginning – no one has been able to do that.

How do you, or the majority of christians, know that Jesus was the Messiah?  There are so many other messiah stories that occurred thousands of years before Christ, and all the ones I've read have the same story as Jesus.  How would you know if the Jesus story is plagiarized from other messianic tales?

Sincerely,
Cite Your Sources

Dear Cite Your Sources,

The differences are in the details – the story of Jesus’ life has lots of them.  History has lots of myths and fables of people performing otherworldly deeds, but when someone tells a myth, it never has specific details, and it never can be corroborated.  Jesus’ life is exactly the opposite.

• We know exactly when He was born and in what city (Lk 2:1-4).
• We know His exact name and family lineage (Matt 1:1-17).
• We know how He died, where He died (Jhn 19:17), and where He was buried (Mk 15:43).
• There were eyewitnesses to the empty tomb (Mk 16:3-5).
• There were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus (1 Cor 15:4-8).

Jesus was attested to by His followers as well as secular writers, like Josephus.  There is a clear and accurate historical record of Jesus’ life that was written within a generation of His lifetime and was undisputed by those most capable of presenting evidence against His resurrection.  Early Christianity flourished because of Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and the ready and available evidence to corroborate the story.  Unlike myths and fairy tales, Jesus’ life is detailed, documented, and corroborated by the historians and contemporaries of His day.

How is heaven real?

Sincerely,
Searching For Evidence

Dear Searching For Evidence,

Heaven, like all spiritual things (angels, God, demons, Satan, hell, etc.), is invisible… but still very real.  There are many things in life that we can’t see, but the evidence proves that they exist.  We can’t see the air, but there is a lot of evidence that it exists.  We can’t see the core of the earth, but evidence proves it to be real.  Gravity is invisible, but it still holds us to the ground.  Just because we can’t see heaven doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

We know heaven exists because we know that God wrote the Bible, and the Bible says that heaven is a real place (Php 3:20).  We recommend reading the article “Who Wrote The Bible?” on the subject of Bible evidence.  We may not be able to see heaven, but it is as real as can be.

(This post is a follow-up to “From Nothing To Eternity”)

I just received your answer.  However, it has only spawned more questions.

You say that the Bible says the earth is round, and the Bible has written of this.  But what about all the verses of the Bible that suggest that the earth is flat?  “Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea” (Job 11:9)… just to name one (other than all the verses that talk about the ends of the earth).  And how Matthew talks about how the devil took Jesus to the top of a mountain to view all the kingdoms of the earth?  You can't do this within a sphere.

About the contradictions, I know of one that I've personally noticed while reading the Bible during my confirmation.  (Exodus 33:11) “And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend.” Compare that to Exodus 33:20: “Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live”.  This is only nine verses later!

About the Bible being widely distributed, that's not a big deal to some. The Iliad was written more than 500 years prior to the Bible, and it's unchanged.

I was raised in a religious family, and I have a lot of problems with Christianity.  I have never been able to get straight answers on most topics.  I even read Lee Strobel’s book... I thought it was garbage and biased.  I don't know if I'll ever believe again but would really like answers because if I'm wrong, well, I need to know if I am.

Sincerely,
Thoughtful Again

Dear Thoughtful Again,

We’ll handle your questions one at a time.

1. None of the verses you mentioned state that the earth is flat.  Job 11:9 simply compares the expanse and width of the earth to the depths of God’s wisdom (Job 11:7)… a figurative comparison, not a literal one.  Furthermore, all the verses that discuss “the ends of the earth” are exactly the same as when we use that terminology today.  People will often say things like, “I would go to the ends of the earth to find my true love”… that doesn’t imply the earth is flat – it is simply a common turn of phrase that is used in multiple languages.  Lastly, when the devil showed Jesus the kingdoms of the earth from the top of a mountain, you failed to read the rest of the passage.  Lk 4:5 says that the devil showed him all the kingdoms of earth in a moment of time – this was obviously a miraculous occurrence, not a topographical issue.
2. Ex. 33:11 is another case of taking a phrase out of context.  Moses spoke to God “face to face” only in the sense that he talked to God “as a man talks to his friend”.  You have to remember to take context into account with everything that you read.  It is a very common problem for people to “cherry pick” verses out of their context and miss what a verse is really saying.
3. The Iliad is not nearly as widely distributed as the Bible.  The less than seven hundred ancient manuscripts that exist of The Iliad are only in agreement 67% of the time.  On the other hand, there are over 17,000 ancient manuscripts of the Bible… they are in 99% agreement.  A pretty huge difference in quality.
4. As far as your belief that Strobel’s book is biased… how do you account for the fact that he was an atheist before he began writing it?  Also, he isn’t the only author to write on this subject.  We would be happy to recommend dozens of books on this topic if you are interested.

We are so thankful that you are willing to honestly examine the evidence.  You may have never received straight answers in the past, but as you can see… we are happy to offer them here.  This is the most important subject you will ever look into.